I've written this week on whether the UK may have passed its maximum level of material consumption. The piece was based on data assembled by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and independent writer/researcher Chris Goodall. Let's take a look at some of the stats in a little bit more detail, starting with the big picture: the total material flows in the UK economy.

The above graph is a summary of the UK's material flow accounts, which are assembled by the ONS each year as part of the UK Environment Accounts. The three high-level measures shown on the graph are total domestic extraction (TDE, the weight of resources extracted in the UK), domestic material consumption (DMC, the weight of resources used within the UK, including imports and excluding exports) and total material consumption (TMR, the total weight of goods consumed in the UK plus all the resources used to produce them, domestically and overseas).

Thanks to our reliance on imported goods, only TMR gives a meaningful impression of our total resource footprint. Goodall's key point is that TMR stayed roughly level throughout the UK's boom years of the 1990s and 2000s – despite soaring GDP – and that it was already on a downward trend before the recession kicked in.

I'm reluctant to read too much into the 2001 peak, which looks like it could be a bit of a blip (the ONS tells me it was to do with increased coal use but wouldn't comment on its statistical significance). However, there are two striking features of the graph: first, that despite rising GDP, material consumption started falling from 2005; second, that after the recession hit, our consumption rates quickly dropped all the way down to sub-1970 levels.

Of course, it's impossible to know for certain whether TMR has peaked for good – but Goodall's research paper presents lots of interesting examples of consumption and waste falling in various different categories. Let's briefly look at the data for some of these.

Household waste

Greenhouse gases aside, most of what we consume eventually becomes solid waste. It's telling, then, that we're each producing less household rubbish and recycling per year, as the following graph shows.

Food and fertiliser

Among the longer-term 'dematerialisation' trends that Goodall flags up are a reduction in fertiliser use:

… and in food consumption, as measured in total calories:

Goodall cites warmer homes and less active lifestyles as likely drivers of our falling calorific intake. I suspect the ageing population may also be significant.

Interestingly, Goodall's research suggests that meat consumption has also been gently declining since around 2003 – though of course that doesn't necessarily mean that our diets are getting much greener. I suspect we're also consuming ever-more super-carbon-intensive out-of-season produce grown in heated greenhouses or transported by air.

Cement

Cement use soared in the 1980s, crashed with the recession from 1989, and then never picked back up to previous levels.

Likely drivers of this change would have to include evolving building techniques and a slow-down in road construction. It could also be that we're simply putting up fewer new buildings – but if that's true, there's no obvious sign of the trend in this Berr summary of contractor income (pdf).

Paper

UK paper use has been quickly dropping since the turn of the century. That's not hugely surprising given that we've been transitioning into the digital age – though it would be nice to think that the trend is being driven by reduced packaging as well as the shift to digital media.

Of course, sceptics might wonder whether the environmental benefits of falling paper use are cancelled out by the energy consumption of all our laptops, Kindles and iPads. In truth, charging our mobile gadgets isn't likely to be very significant – note that UK electricity use per person is also on the way down. What's harder to measure is the impact of manufacturing all those laptops and other gadgets – and providing them with online services.

Water

Water isn't covered in the material flow accounts, but it's interesting to see that national water consumption follows what appears to be the general downward trend. Interesting, our water use is falling despite the fact that more of us are living alone or in small families.

This graph shows the total amount of mains water used by end consumers. The total amount pumped into the system is declining even faster, thanks to the gradual fixing of leaks in the distribution network.

New vehicles

I suspect dwindling vehicle sales are being driven by lots of factors working in parallel. These might include our increasingly urbanised population, better car design meaning that each vehicle stays on the road for longer, the birth of car clubs, and the fact that we only have a certain amount of road and parking space.

Energy

UK energy use also started to fall before the recession struck – and has dropped sharply since.

The graph above shows primary energy – which includes all the energy wasted as heat in power stations. End use of energy has also fallen.

Of course, these figures only describe energy use in the UK. We can be pretty sure that total British energy use – including the coal burned in China to power the factories that produce our imported goods – is still on the rise. Which is a good point to end on, because while the 'peak stuff' story is a positive one, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that our carbon footprint is still climbing. In other words, Britain may have started consuming less 'stuff', but our lifestyles rely on more coal, oil and gas use than ever before. Next stop peak carbon please.